Hunt for sniper after three-hour daylight rampage

GARDAÍ are still searching for a sniper who carried out at least 10 shootings in a three-hour spree through Co Cork.

While detectives examining ballistic marks have yet to ascertain the weapon used, they believe it was a high-powered air rifle.

It was also believed the gunman was probably driven by an accomplice in a dark-coloured small car as he targeted cars, houses, a bus and a hotel on a rampage between midday and 4pm last Tuesday.

Incidents were reported in Carrigaline, Crosshaven, Fivemilebridge, Fountainstown, Kinsale, Dunderrow and Innishannon.

Hal McElroy, manager of the Trident Hotel in Kinsale, said shots were fired through three windows at the back of the hotel at around 1.20pm.

“The shots were fired through special toughened glass. If there had been somebody in the rooms at the time they could have done damage to them, but fortunately there wasn’t.”

Detectives in the Cork City and West Cork garda divisions are working together to identify the culprits. “These incidents had a propensity for causing serious injury. We could have had a fatality. Thousands of euro worth of damage was done,” Inspector Brendan Fogarty said.

Shots were fired at a number of houses and cars at Crosshaven, Carrigaline Fountainstown and Fivemilebridge. It is believed that, shortly after firing at the Trident Hotel, the sniper blew out the window of a parked jeep on the back road from Bandon to Kinsale.

At Shippool, near the village of Innishannon, the occupant of a house got a shock when their porch door was shot in. They were in the house at the time but escaped injury.

Inspector Fogarty said that gardaí were yesterday examining CCTV footage in Kinsale. They were carrying out house-to-house inquiries in the area. He appealed for the public’s help and asked anybody who saw the car, or a car fitting its description, to contact Bandon gardaí at 023-52200.